Felix Blume[a] (born 3 August 1984), known professionally as Kollegah is a Germanrapper. Born in Friedberg, Hesse and raised by a single mother in Simmern, he started rapping in the Reimliga Battle Arena in December 2004. Intent on pursuing a solo career as a rapper, Kollegah released his first mixtapeZuhältertape in July 2005 and was signed to Selfmade Records in December of the same year. He went on to pursue a variety of styles on subsequent albums Alphagene (2007), Kollegah (2008), Bossaura (2011). In 2013, he released Jung, brutal, gutaussehend 2 with German rapper Farid Bang, which was his breakthrough album. His fourth studio album King was released in 2014 and became his best-selling album to date. His fifth album, Zuhältertape Vol. 4 was released in 2015 and Imperator in 2016.

He is founder and president of the record label Alpha Music Empire. His style and demeanor are heavily based on gangsta rap.

Biography

1984-2005: Early life and Reimliga Battle Arena

Felix Blume was born on August 3, 1984 in Friedberg, Hesse, to a Canadian father and German mother. His parents divorced during his childhood. After the divorce, he and his mother moved to Simmern in Rhineland-Palatinate.[1] At the age of 15, Blume came in contact with Islam through his Algerianstepfather. He converted to the religion in the same year. From December 2004 until May 2005 Kollegah participated in rap battles on the online platform Reimliga Battle Arena (RBA) and won 11 out of 14 evaluated battles.[2][3] He passed the Abitur exam in 2005 and released his first non-battle track "Waffenfetisch".[4]

2005-2007: Selfmade Records, Zuhältertape and first studio album Alphagene

Blume released his first Mixtape Zuhältertape for free in 2005 and the re-release Zuhältertape X-Mas Edition on December 29, 2005 under Selfmade Records. In July 2006 Blume published his second Mixtape Boss der Bosse. He earned critics for his bad live performance in Splash! in 2006.[5] Blume's first studio album Alphagene was set to release in September 2007, but was postponed to November, because he was found guilty of owning drugs.[6]Alphagene peaked on 51[7] and sold over 20,000 copies.[8]

On 11 March 2009, Chronik 2 was released, an album featuring the Selfmade Records artists. The song "Westdeutschlands Kings" performed by Kollegah, Favorite and Farid Bang, targeted insults at Sido, Fler and Kitty Kat from Aggro Berlin.[9] In March, a song titled "Früher wart ihr Fans" was released by Fler, Kitty Kat and Godsilla as a reaction. In the song, they accuse Selfmade Records artists of having created the feud for the sole purpose of marketing their album; Kitty Kat also attacks Favorite by referring to the death of his parents, who died because of a fire while camping. Kollegah responded on 20 March with the song "Fanpost", calling Fler a "fat potato" and claims that he was penetrated with a carrot.[10] Fler responded with the song "Schrei nach Liebe", the chorus of which is heavily based on Die Ärzte's 1993 hit single "Schrei nach Liebe".[11]

On August 28, 2009 Blume released his second studio album Kollegah, which peaked at 17 in Germany,[12] 48 in Switzerland[13] and sold over 20,000 copies.[8] Since 2009 Blume is studying law at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.[14][15] In April 2009 Selfmade Records released their second label sampler with Kollegah, Favourite, Casper and Shiml. Three months later Blume released his first collaborative album with Farid Bang, called Jung, brutal, gutaussehend. In December Blume released the third part of his Zuhältertape-Series. A year later Selfmade released the a limited Box-Set with all three Zuhältertape's and the Hoodtape Volume 1.

In March 2016 Blume founded his own label Alpha Music Empire. The first signing was the rapper Seyed. His debut studio album Engel mit der AK peaked on number three of the German album charts.[16] On September 2, 2016 he announced his sixth studio album and first under his own label Imperator, which was released on December 9, 2016.[17]Imperator peaked at number one of the German, Austrian and Swiss album charts.[18][19][20] It also became his third solo album to receive a gold certificate.[21]

On March 10, 2017, Blume announced his first Best-Of Legacy and the "Kollegah Gold-Award", a compilation of all his albums released under Selfmade Records.[22] Eight days later, during a concert of his "Imperator"-Tour in Leipzig there was a violent incident onstage. As it's often the case with rap concerts, a rap battle between two spectators should be performed on the stage. One of the participant tried to grab Blume's sunglasses. As a result, Blume shoved the man, kicked him and punched him in the face. A few hours later videos of the attack were uploaded to YouTube and Facebook.[23] An uninvolved person filed a lawsuit against Blume.[24][25]Legacy was released on July 14, 2017 and peaked on number two in Germany.

Jung Brutal Gutaussehend 3 was announced on September 8, 2017 and was released on December 1, 2017.[26] In five days, over 27,000 limited Box-Sets were pre-ordered.[27]

Controversies

Antisemitism and conspiracy theories

On his third mixtape Zuhältertape Volume 3, Blume used the line "Endlösung der Rapperfrage", directly referring to the Final Solution during the Holocaust. Gerhard Strate called it mocking of Holocaust victims. His fourth studio album Zuhältertape Vol. 4 contained statements like "Nutte, Zeit, dass du Putzlappen befeuchtest / Ich bring Schusswaffengeräusche wie die Schutzstaffel der Deutschen" ("Hooker, that time that you moisturize cloths / I bring firearms sounds like the Schutzstaffel of the Germans") or "Kid, es ist der Boss, der für 'ne Modezeitschrift Posen einnimmt wie die Wehrmacht, die in Polen einschritt" ("Kid, it is the boss, who poses for a fashion magazine like the Wehrmacht, which invaded Poland").[28]

In 2016 Blume released the song "Apokalypse", in which he's depicting the human history as being the good against the bad. In the music video the evil is shown as the devil wearing the Star of David. The final battle is set in East Jerusalem. The devil is sitting in a skyscraper and the climax of the video is a book burning. After the world got freed from the evil, Blume is saying that "Buddhist, Muslims and Christians will rebuild the world peacefully", without Jews.[29][30]

In November 2016 Blume released the documentation KOLLEGAH IN PALÄSTINA (Eine StreetCinema Dokumentation) on his YouTube Channel Bosshaft TV. He traveled through the Palestinian territories, visited the West Bank barrier, the refugee camp Al-Amari and supported a school.[31] The documentation started a controversy in the German rap-scene.[32][33]

In 2018, Kollegah and Farid Bang were criticized for making Holocaust references on their album Jung, Brutal, Gutaussehend.[34] They received the coveted German ECHO award for this album, and in reaction to this, several artists gave their ECHOs back.

Other ventures

Bosstransformation

In February 2014 Blume launched his own Fitness-Program named Bosstransformation. Two years later he launched the Bosstransformation 2, an updated version.

Fashion

In November 2015, Blume launched his own clothing line Deus Maximus.[35]

Discography

Achievements

External links

References

^Blume's full name is currently unknown. The sources vary from one first name upwards to 22. According to KiloHerz his full name is Felix Martin Andreas Matthias Blume. Hip-Hop.de says his name is Justus Julius Jonas Michael Markus Mirco Frank Frederick Friedrich Lars Levin Lukas Timo Theodor Torsten Ali Ansgar Antoine Felix Martin Andreas Matthias Blume. GEMA has him registered as Felix Martin Andreas Matthias Blume and Felix Blume.